Rapid Agricultural Response Fund

To find a new way to problem solve in the 21st century, in 1998 the Minnesota Legislature worked with the state's agricultural leaders to create resources to tackle emerging agrilcultural challanges. The result was the Rapid Agricultural Response Fund (RARF). Since that beginning it has helped develop research answers to some of the most puzzling and unpredictable problems facing our farmers.

Below you will find overviews of the most recent RARF projects including background information, project objectives, and progress updates when available.

Jim Collins and his team are working to develop a specific, sensitive, rapid, and high throughput real-time RT-PCR to detect Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) in swine and to map the complete genome of PEVD for global comparisons.

Jim Collins and his team are working to molecularly characterize the entire genome of swine RVB and RVC strains to determine the diversity within each RV group, and ultimately identify the most common genotypes of these viruses.